Empowering adolescent cadres for promoting oral health behavior: A persuasive communication training pilot study in Indonesia.

Background: Adolescents are considered good cadres who can socialize healthy dental behavior. Therefore, designing a dental health education program is necessary to prepare adolescents to socialize dental health behavior. Purpose: This study evaluates the pilot program for trainers using persuasive communication to socialize dental health behavior. Methods: Thirty-five participants (13-16 years old) were trained by a persuasive communication coach and practiced the skills with a simulated client. This one-day training had a two-phase structure: lectures and practicum. The evaluation was completed utilizing three of the four-level methods from Kirkpatrick (1959). The data analysis used for the reaction evaluation was descriptive statistics, calculating the average score per category of training support assessment items (curriculum, facilitator, accommodation, and overall score). The learning outcome analysis resulted from an analysis of the pre- and post-test results using the N-Gain value and paired t-test. Behavior outcomes were also analyzed descriptively by calculating the average score of all participants in every timeline (baseline and two weeks after the training). Results: Evaluation of this training revealed that reaction has an average total score of 4.02, which shows that the participants were satisfied with the training, learning has an N-Gain acquisition of 48.28%, and behavior level shows a positive outcome as an increase in points from 3.4 to 4.2. Conclusion: The training program produced thirty cadres ready to implement the program in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]